Decking is a popular addition to many homes and businesses. Historically, decking has been installed by building a support beam foundation system topped by a joist system, and then attaching decking boards on top of the joist system. The decking boards are often made of composite materials. To attach the deck boards to the joist system, the most direct approach has been to nail or screw directly through from the top of the deck board through to the joist, as shown in FIG. 38C. Then, to conceal the screw and improve the aesthetic appeal and life of the deck, a plug may be used. An angled attachment, as shown in FIG. 38B has also been proposed. To provide for appropriate spacing between the deck boards, gapping tools, such as that shown in FIG. 38C may be installed and attached to the joist as well.
In other methods, a concealed gapping and fastening tool, such as that shown in FIG. 38A, has been developed. This concealed gapping and fastening tool is (generally forcibly) inserted into a side of the deck board, and then screwed into the joist using a 45 degree angle.
Although each of the above methods are functional, they are labor intensive and require a high degree of skill on the part of the deck installer, requiring, for example fairly precise locating skills on the part of the installer; that is, the installer must guess where the joist is located when installing according to FIG. 38C. In the alternative, the installer must be skilled enough to appropriately angle and attach the screw, as shown in FIGS. 38A-38B and/or use a costly aligning tool to achieve the appropriate angle. Finally, each of the devices in FIGS. 38A-38C are relatively small in size, leading to a high loss of material and/or material hunting on the part of the installer when the components fall to the ground below the deck. None of the previous approaches allow for a replacement of old decking boards without removing and replacing the attachment components.
Accordingly, a system and method are needed to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.